Kavita Srivastava- I too am very uncomfortable about glorifying former President Abdul Kalam. For me he will always remain the man who led India to become nuclear. All that he did later cannot nullify how that act resulted in putting the whole of South Asia on short fuse. Even militarily he made us weak. India supposedly had nine times military might over Pakistan. But after the blasts of 11th May 1998, within 15 days Pakistan by doing their blasts equalised the weaponisation strength. What was the difference between Dr. Qadir who led Pakistan to become nuclear and Dr Kalam. We have put the whole South Asian region in jeopardy. Yes he had a way with children, lived an austere life, was against the Death penalty all values which are very important for me, but can we nullify that for the same children he loved he also gave them a world with more dangerous and lethal weapons. A weapon which can destroy life itself. I think we should not go gaga over him. Please also don’ t call him a scientist, he was an engineer, a technologist. Even with children he mostly talked about achievement and success. What about dreams, freedom to think, experimentation, forgiveness, reflection. These were wanting in his speeches. No i cannot be his fan. Deep condolences though for the departed soul. Normally one does not fight or talk critically of a dead person. I wrote this as almost everybody was only singing praises.

Nandita Das- #RIPAbdulKalam What a way to go….in the midst of a talk to the students in Meghalaya.

Mahesh Bhatt- Dr Kalam once told me that he learnt about true service from Gandhiji